


Past and Future Remorse

by Eorendel



Series: Without U [1]
Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Definitely drama, Gen, Human Experimentation, Inspiration from different mecha animes, M/M, Mecha, Military Science Fiction, Mixed Media, People are nice, Probably romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy, The ancient law of frenemies, people are stupid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-26 20:16:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12066213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eorendel/pseuds/Eorendel
Summary: Trying to uncover the truth is something akin to attempting to see the bottom of the deep blue sea by simply looking down. Inaho goes on a similar crusade where he tries to unveil the wrongdoings of a secret facility founded by the UFE after the Second War. Along the way, not only are his suspicions confirmed, a long dead past is brought back to life. Quite literally.Aldnoah was the key for everything, it was clear crystal, but how much were they really seeing when they weren't seeing everything?





	Past and Future Remorse

The road ahead was empty, but full of fog. No cars passed through the military zone; unless they were cleared first fifty miles before by standard protocols – which required at least months of preparations to be checked and triple checked by the corresponding officers. In the northeast part of the continent once known as Norway, this strict regime of bureaucracy was put in place. The reason was known by a few. The actual reason was known by fewer people. Inaho was one of those people. A secret military base was constructed after the Second War. Its completion took place seven months after the final battle.

Aldonah was a miracle. A gift from the gods – some still thought reverently. A regime was made around it. And thanks to the wars and countless of deaths, it was free from the clutches of the dictators and available for everyone. It was a statement full of falsehood and misinterpretations.

Naivety wasn’t a trait Inaho possessed. He was a man of reason; he was cunning, shrewd and logical. He thought he was immune to manipulations. That was the case, until now. The road was a long dirt path with huge trees flanking it on both sides. There was no sound inside the car beside the occasional rustling of pages as Inaho re-read some papers. At some point, the person driving complained loudly and very clearly for the nth time.

“Again, Nao, we should call the police!” Yuki roared in frustration.

Inaho didn’t glance at his sister, merely pointed out the obvious, “We have a higher rank than the police. We would do little by informing anyone on our side. In fact, as I have stated before it would be detrimental for my investigation. Please, cease this unreasonable train of ideas.”

“I’m not being unreasonable! You are!” Yuki, yelled. Inaho hummed in response and half-tuned out the rant that was coming next. “I know you think you have to do something because you think is wrong but you can’t put yourself at risk anymore! You’ve already done enough for this planet already! Hell, you’ve even helped the Martians with their stupid politics! I know you’re a kind soul but you should lean on someone else to deal with this matter for once! Come on, we can still turn back and ask Captain Magbaredge or Admiral Hakkinen’s help!"

“If I could, I would have done so,” Inaho replied deadpan, “Both can’t be involved with what I’m doing. I need them to remain a neutral party if my deductions are proven correct. It’s far wiser to keep them as our backup when I expose the experiments done inside the facility. And you are wrong on one thing. I am not doing this alone. You are with me.”

Yuki reddened, pouted and made a happy face mixed with discontent and resignation. The range of expressions his sister could muster never ceased to amaze him. Silence fell inside the car again, both siblings thinking on their own matters. Yuki was probably thinking about persuading Inaho again, while Inaho was worrying about the information he got a day earlier pertaining some disturbing facts. If the data was right, and if he confirmed it, it could lead to another interplanetary war. But this time, he was sure that Earth was going to face the consequences no matter the outcome.

The sky was barely visible now, despite being past midday – its dark gray color looked ominous somehow. Yuki had said as much when they first got onto the road.

A few minutes passed when the first tremor began to shake the earth. It was almost unnoticeable, there was a sense of being off centered but neither Yuki nor Inaho really reacted until the second tremor made the car swerve. Yuki hit brakes at once, forcefully stopping the car. They jerked forward and took a second to confirm that indeed, an earthquake had happened. Springing into action, they unbuckled their seatbelts and got out of the car.

In unison they got close to each other while an indescribable sound began to resonate all around them. There were no buildings in the proximity, neither were skyscrapers nor constructions, but the sound of twisting metal traveled along with the cries of the forest. When it seemed that the tremors were over, both Inaho and Yuki felt it, a shock-wave and an ear-splitting explosion, strong enough to bend the trees backwards and knock them over against their car.

They did not know what the first sound was but they could tell any day what the launching of a kataphrak felt like. They looked up at the dark sky in time to see three different colored rays of light fading in the air. One stabilized mid-air, just below the clouds, scarlet red in color, turned its frame left and right as if trying to recognize its surroundings, in the next moment it turned up and flew high up at an unprecedented speed for a normal kataphraks and breached open the dark sky letting the sunlight fall in its stead. It soon disappeared from view.

A second one hovered closer to the ground, just atop the trees, it looked like it was descending. Its light frame looked unlike a normal design, it resembled more to the core of the frame than a complete kataphrak – it looked too much like a human. It shone brightly thanks to the path of light coming in from the clouds, a regal light blue coated its entire frame and unlike the red one, this one seemed fixated on something below. It didn’t move but something behind it did.

The last kataphrak seemed erratic, moving about while frantically looking everywhere. It was an odd behavior. Even more strange was the fact that the movements of the machine looked smooth – again, both kataphraks looked too human, a part of Inaho noticed. While its behavior seemed unpredictable, Inaho had more time to study it than the other two. This white kataphrak confirmed his suspicions about the nature of the facility. They were creating a new generation of mechas. They were building weapons of mass destruction in times of intergalactic peace. They were violating the peace accord between Earth and Mars.

Inaho was about to pull out his tablet to record everything when the blue kataphrak moved its arm. With one metallic finger, it pointed something down on the ground – Inaho realized where that was and his usual composed face crumbled. In the next instant, a ray shot from its finger – a green bright beam of light hit the facility. The following explosion was ten times stronger than the one they felt before. The shock-wave moved the car backwards, Yuki and Inaho fell on the ground and the weaker leaves and branches of the trees began to fall. Dark smoke started to rise from where the blue mecha shot. Counterattacking began from the facility almost instantly.

Inaho could guess military tanks were opening fire and he expected to see evasive maneuvers from the blue mecha, but there were none. Their bullets didn’t seem to be doing much damage – or anything at all. The figure of the blue mecha pointing to the facility seemed eerie, as if those below were being judged and condemned by it. The blue mecha moved again, but this time instead of pointing a finger, it brought its hands together – it seemed to attempt to fuse them.

“We have to leave.” Inaho managed to say, if he was correct, what was coming up next was disastrous. Standing up and taking his sister by the hand he pulled her up and inside the car. He started the engine and hit the gas pedal to its maximum speed back from where they came from.

As he drove a baleful hiss pierced the atmosphere. Yuki, who was ungracefully thrown into the backseat, gasped in horror. An even greater explosion blasted around them. The car swerved again but this time Inaho had an idea how to control it, with little trouble he went back on the road.

“Yes, you go white!” Yuki suddenly exclaimed. “Stop that blue jerk!”

“Tell me what is happening, I can’t look back.” Inaho ordered tensely, it was imperious to have information in this kind of situation.

“A-ah, the white kataphrak moved the blue one from its original shooting trajectory. It missed I think. They are struggling at the moment. The white one seems to want to stop the blue one from firing – oh no!”

Inaho fought the need to look back, “Sister!”

“The blue freed itself, it’s pushing the white one back with punches and–”

“Are they directing their fight towards us?” Inaho cut in.

“N-no but, something weird is happening. Both kats are glowing.”

“Put on your seatbelt.” Inaho ordered at once.

“The red one is back!” Yuki suddenly yelled, “It’s getting into the fight! It’s pushing the blue one away!”

“Your seatbelt!”

 

The world dyed in white.

 

White noise.

 

White light.

 

There was nothing to see or to hear.

 

The space around them disappeared.

 

They disappeared.

 

There was nothing.

 

* * *

 

 

Inaho woke up disoriented. He was still inside the car, quickly, mechanically, looked for injuries. He found just a slight bruise on his forehead. He turned to the backseats and scrambled over to check his sister who had actually listened for once and had put on her seatbelt. He checked her over and found no major injuries. She seemed to have fainted. Not wanting to wake her up without information, Inaho got out the car. He looked around and tried to understand what was before his eyes.

They were in a forest, but this wasn’t the forest they were in before. It was raining, and hot, the plants around them were different and there was no dirt path or road in sight. Inaho could only conclude that the phenomenon they experienced before with the white light was the cause of this predicament. He opened the passenger door and brought out his tablet, where it had fallen on the floor. Inaho tried to start it, but it wasn’t working.

“It short circuited?” he asked aloud. He tried with his cellphone. The same happened.

Assessing his surroundings more thoroughly, Inaho ventured a bit. He could hear the sound of water running. There was a river. This could mean that they could get help since bodies of water were sought after. However, that also meant that not only people were attracted to it. Carefully, he approached the river, his standard-issued UFE gun on his hand. He was right, a huge jaguar twice his size was trudging toward something on the shore.

Inaho froze. Time stopped. It was impossible. Inaho tried to understand what he was seeing. He was dead. It couldn’t be true because he saw him die. Inaho had done it. He killed him on the beach – amidst the sound of waves, the smell of the ocean and the sight of the Tharsis sinking in the distance. This wasn’t rational, this–this was beyond–

Slaine Troyard was laying motionless on the ground, his legs in the shallow water of the river shore. Face towards Inaho he could see he was bleeding profusely from his head. The jaguar kept its placid pace toward its next meal.

Inaho fired. The gunshot broke the calm pitted-patter of the light rain, and the jaguar jumped in fright. It didn’t look back as it ran away. Once he made sure the jaguar didn’t seem to have plans to return, Inaho approached the prone form of what once was the most wanted enemy of the universe. He assessed Slaine’s appearance. He wore a white garb, just as one used in hospitals. He looked sickly pale, a dark contrast with the blood flowing from his head.

This was a bizarre situation, but regardless, he needed to tend to Slaine’s injuries. Cautiously, he examined his head wound. There was a deep cut just under his hairline. Aside from that, he seemed to have just a few bruises here and there. Inaho, as gently as he could, tried to wake him up.

“Slaine, wake up.” He said without touching him, “We need to treat your injury.”

There was no response so with justified apprehension Inaho shook his shoulder, “Slaine.”

Inaho would rather keep on trying to wake him now than to face the possibility of Slaine waking up while being transported to the car. He really didn’t want to start a fight with him. Slaine Troyard was a dangerous person. Finally, he decided to cradle Slaine’s face with one hand, while pushing his hair out of the way. It was longer than he remembered it being. But it was to be expected, the last time he saw Slaine was five years ago. Changes were bound to happen in that lapse of time – though, usually, if it was a corpse there were different types of changes, but the Slaine before him was clearly alive.

Slaine opened his eyes slowly, focusing first on Inaho’s face. Inaho braced himself for any kind of violent reaction but he got none. Slaine closed his eyes again and seemed intent on going to sleep again.

“Slaine, we have to move.” Inaho said daringly, uprighting Slaine from the ground.

He complied but Slaine didn’t say anything back.

“Slaine, are you okay?” Inaho asked impulsively.

Slaine turned to him with half-lidded eyes, “Who is Slaine?” and then after a moment, where he reached to touch Inaho’s face gently, “Who are you?”

Inaho took a deep breath, halting whatever potential train of thought would derail the situation before him, “One problem at a time.” He said composed – or as much as he could feel. “First, let’s move out of the rain.”

“Okay.” Slaine said as he wrapped his arms around Inaho’s neck.

It’s evident that everything in Inaho’s mind got derailed by that simple gesture.

How quaint.

**Author's Note:**

> I really don't find (or remember) the name/spelling of "Colonel Heikenen-whatshisname" but I'm vaguely aware he existed in the anime unless I created it which I highly doubt. As a favor, please, tell me if you know how to spell his name. Leaving that aside, hope you liked the light read. I am aware I left a lot of things unanswered. I might do a continuation at some point. I'm also curious as to what you think is going on in this universe. Please, leave your theories in the comments down below.
> 
> Finally, thanks a lot to [Stirling Phoenix](http://archiveofourown.org/users/stirlingphoenix/works) for editing this story!


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